Astra (horse)

Astra (foaled January 25, 1996, in Kentucky) was an American Thoroughbred racemare who won four Grade I races on turf.

She was bred and raced by Allen Paulson who also owned and raced her dam and her sire. Her dam was Savannah Slew, a daughter of the 1977 U.S. Triple Crown champion Seattle Slew, and her sire was Theatrical, winner of the 1987 Breeders' Cup Turf.^[1]

Following the death of Allen Paulson on July 19, 2000, Astra raced for the Allen E. Paulson Living Trust. In mid-2001, trainer Simon Bray retired and her race conditioning was then turned over to Laura de Seroux who went on to match the two Grade I and the single Grade II wins that Bray had had with Astra. In winning her second edition of the Beverly Hills Handicap in 2002 for de Seroux, Astra set a new stakes record of 1:58.56 - for a mile and a quarter on turf.^[2]

Astra was boarded at Ashford Stud near Versailles, Kentucky. She produced three foals, all of which raced but with only limited success,^[3] before her untimely death on June 12, 2007, at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute near Lexington as a result of complications from colic.^[4]